Guide to Good Business Communications: How to Write and Speak English Well in Every Business Situation

177 Pages·2009·0.67 MB·english

by  Michael Bennie

A Guide to
Good
Business
Communication
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A Guide to
Good
Business
Communication
5th edition
How to write and speak English
well in every business situation
Michael Bennie
Published by How To Content,
A division of How To Books Ltd,
Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road,
Begbroke, Oxford OX5 1RX, United Kingdom
Tel: [phone]. Fax: [phone]
[email protected]
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All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or stored in an
information retrieval system (other than for the purposes of review) without the
express permission of the Publisher given in writing.

The right of Michael Bennie to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.

© 2009 Michael Bennie

Fifth edition 2009
First published in electronic form 2009

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84803 322 1

Produced for How to Books by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock
Typeset by Pantek Arts Ltd, Maidstone, Kent

NOTE: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general
guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result
of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in this book. The laws
and regulations are complex and liable to change, and readers should check the
current position with the relevant authorities before making personal arrangements.
Contents
Introduction vii
1. Communicating in business 1
TheFunctionsofBusinessCommunication 1
WrittenandSpokenCommunicationinBusiness 2
BusinessandOtherStylesofCommunication 6
2. Planning what you are going to say 8
YourReasonsforWritingorSpeaking 8
GettingtheRightReaction 13
AssemblingandOrderingYourInformationandArguments 19
3. Laying out documents 29
Letters 29
MemosandE-mails 36
Reports 38
IncorporatingTablesandCharts 44
4. Constructing sentences and paragraphs 54
WhatIsaSentence? 54
BuildingSentencesintoParagraphs 60
HowSentencesandParagraphsAffecttheWayYouSpeak 69
5. Good business style 72
UsingtheRightTone 72
ChoosingtheRightWords 78
SpeakingClearly 81
6. Techniques for different occasions 84
MakingRequests 84
AnsweringRequests 86
WritingSalesLetters 89
ConductingMeetings 93
MakingComplaints 98
AnsweringComplaints 101
ClarifyingComplexProblems 105
WritingReports 108
MakingPresentations 110
7. Common grammatical mistakes 114
NounsandPronouns 115
Verbs 117
AdjectivesandAdverbs 119
Prepositions 121
Conjunctions 122
PhrasesandClauses 124
v
AGuideToGoodBusinessCommunication
8. Punctuation 126
FullStops 127
Commas 127
Semicolons 129
Colons 131
Brackets 131
Dashes 132
Apostrophes 133
QuotationMarks 133
ExclamationMarks 134
QuestionMarks 134
Hyphens 135
9. Spelling and vocabulary 136
CommonlyMisspeltWords 136
CommonlyConfusedWords 139
AnswerstoExercises 143
Furtherreading 157
Glossary 159
Index 161
vi
Introduction
Communication is the key to success in any business. Whether you are trying to sell a
product, answer a query or complaint or convince your colleagues to adopt a certain
courseofaction,goodcommunicationoftenmeansthedifferencebetweensuccessand
failure. At best, imprecise language, clumsy sentences or long-winded ‘waffle’, whether
inspeechorwriting,willgiveapoorimpressionofyouoryourbusiness;atworst,what
youaretryingtosaywillbemisunderstoodorignored.Incontrast,clear,preciseEnglish
willbeenjoyabletoreadorlistento,andislikelytoevoketheresponseyouwant.
Thisbookiswrittenforeveryonewhowantstodeveloptheskillofgoodcommunication
in the workplace – from business students to managers, voluntary workers to govern-
ment officials. Moreover, because of the globalisation of trade and the use of the
Internet,thepositionofEnglishastheinternationallanguageofbusinessisstrongerthan
ever. I hope, therefore, that those who do not have English as their first language but
needtouseitforbusinesscommunicationwillalsofindthisausefulguide.
The aim is to give you a good grounding in writing and speaking style, which you can
thenapplytoanysituation.Itshowswhatisgoodandbadstyle,whatyoushouldavoid
and why. What it does not do is provide a set of model documents for particular situa-
tions. You should think about what you want to say, not just copy someone else’s
models.Soalthoughyouwillfindagreatmanyexamplesofdocumentsthroughoutthe
book, they are just that – examples to illustrate particular points and techniques, not
modelstobecopied.
The book is arranged in such a way as to be easy to use, whether you are following it
fromstarttofinishordippingintoit.Itstartswithageneraldiscussionofbusinesscom-
munication and then goes on to planning, layout, construction and style. There are
chapters on grammar, punctuation and spelling, but I have put them towards the end.
Thisisnotbecausetheyareunimportant–farfromit–butsothatyoucanrefertothem
if you need to without them getting in the way of the discussion of style and construc-
tion. They contain the minimum of theory; the emphasis is on practical application, and
onmistakestoavoid.
Throughoutthebookthereareexercisesinwhichyoucanputthetechniquesdiscussed
into practice. Answers are provided at the back. In many cases (for example, when an
exercise involves writing a letter or memo) there will be several possible options,
depending on your own personal style, and the samples shown are just suggestions. In
other instances, especially when it comes to grammar or spelling, there will clearly be
onlyoneanswer,andinthesecasesthatismadeclear.
As you improve your communication skills, you will find it very satisfying to be able to
express yourself clearly and succinctly, and to get your precise meaning across to your
audience. Not only will you have the satisfaction of a job well done, but you will know
thatthereisagreaterchancethatpeoplewillreactinthewayyouwantthemto.
All the characters and organisations in the examples and exercises are purely fictional,
andanyresemblancetorealindividualsororganisationsispurelycoincidental.
vii
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CHAPTER 1
Communicating in business
Communication
Thedefinitionofcommunicationis:Theprocessbywhichinformationisexchanged.Itcantake
placeinanumberofways:
(cid:1) throughthewrittenword
(cid:1) throughthespokenword
(cid:1) throughpicturesanddiagrams
(cid:1) throughfacialexpressions,behaviourandposture
(cid:1) throughnon-verbalsounds
Inbusinessthemostcommonformsofcommunicationarespokenandwritten,althoughvisual
formscanplayapart,asweshallseeinChapter3.
The Functions of Business Communication
Wecommunicateinbusinessforanumberofdifferentreasons,andthemethodsweuse
will depend on the reasons, the circumstances, and perhaps the people with whom we
are communicating. These are some of the reasons why we may need to communicate
withothersinabusinesssetting:
(cid:1) topassoninformation
(cid:1) topersuadepeopletobuyaproductoruseaservice
(cid:1) todiscussanissue
(cid:1) torecommendacourseofaction
(cid:1) tomakeoranswerarequest
(cid:1) tomakeoransweracomplaint
(cid:1) tokeeparecordofsomethingthathashappenedorbeenagreed
(cid:1) toexplainorclarifyasituation
(cid:1) togiveaninstruction
Clearly, to cover such a variety of situations, you will need to be able to use a range of
different methods and styles. Your style and tone are unlikely to be the same if you are
making a request, for example, as if you are making a complaint. You are also more
likelytospeaktosomeonethantowritetothemifyouwanttodiscussanissue,whereas
arecordofsomethingthathashappenedwouldneedtobeinwriting.
1